Chris Goodfellow doesn’t have much patience for the uncertainty concerning Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The instrument-rated Florida-based Canadian pilot found the theories and counter-theories mooted on outlets like CNN “almost disturbing.” (I’ve appeared on CNN to discuss Flight MH370, but I’ll try not to take Goodfellow’s remarks personally.) So he set about cutting through the clutter, using nothing more than the machete-like incisiveness of his own intellect.

If Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 went down in the Indian Ocean, it would likely mean that the pilots were incapacitated by a fire or other catastrophic event, and the jet was flying on autopilot, a satellite communications consultant says.

Military planes from Australia, the U.S. and New Zealand have been searching in a region over the southern Indian Ocean that was narrowed down from 600,000 to 305,000 square kilometres. If debris from the plane is found in the “predicted area” it is likely that the plane was not under a pilot’s control for the last few hours of flight, Tim Farrar said.

“The assumption is if you’re going off into the Southern Ocean, presumably the pilots were incapacitated by a fire or something, and it was flying on autopilot until the fuel ran out,” Farrar told The New York Times. “That’s sort of implicit in the Southern Ocean assumption.”

Investigators appeared to use the plane’s final “ping” signals to a satellite to identify the search area, he said. They also likely assumed that the jet was flying at an undeviating speed toward Antarctica when it presumably plunged into the Indian Ocean, he said.

The owner of a Norwegian car carrier said it planned to search through the night for two large objects sighted off Australia that could be debris from the missing Malaysian jetliner, despite the official search being suspended because it was too dark.

The Hoegh St. Petersburg was the first ship to arrive in the area where the two objects were spotted by satellite four days ago in one of the remotest parts of the globe, around 2,500 km southwest of Perth.

“We will continue searching during the night at reduced speed and with all spotlights available, and we will increase the speed again when the light comes back,” Ingar Skiaker, Chief Executive of Hoegh Autoliners, told a news conference in Oslo.

“We have not had any report of any finds, but if or when they find something… the captain will report to the Australian authorities first,” he said.

Hoegh Autoliners said as far as they knew theirs was still the only ship in the area in the southern Indian Ocean, with other ships on their way and expected to arrive tomorrow.

Two Royal Australia Air Force AP-3C Orions, a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon and a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-3K2 Orion are also involved in the search.

A Royal Australian Navy ship equipped to recover any objects was en route and China’s icebreaker for Antarctic research, Xuelong, or Snow Dragon, was to set off from Perth, state news agency Xinhua cited maritime authorities as saying.

The Hoegh St. Petersburg would stay to help in the search for as long as it was needed, a company spokesman said.

“We are thinking about those who are waiting for news. We are thinking of the relatives,” Skiaker said.

The car carrier was on its way from Madagascar to Melbourne when it got a request from Australian authorities to assist in looking for the objects.

The larger object measured up to 24 metres long and appeared to be floating on water several thousand metres deep, Australian officials said. The second object was about 5 metres long.

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority released two images of the whitish objects floating on or just under the surface. The images, provided by U.S. company DigitalGlobe DGI.N, were taken March 16, but Australian Air Commodore John McGarry said it took time to analyze them.

In the meantime, the possible debris could have drifted far from the original site.

Some analysts said the debris is most likely not pieces of Flight MH370.

“The chances of it being debris from the airplane are probably small, and the chances of it being debris from other shipping are probably large,” said Jason Middleton, an aviation professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

The area where the debris was spotted is about halfway between Australia and desolate islands off the Antarctic.

No confirmed wreckage from Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 has been found since it vanished from air traffic control screens off Malaysia’s east coast early on March 8, less than an hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur for Beijing with 239 people on board.

Police are considering the possibility of hijacking, sabotage, terrorism or issues related to the mental health of the pilots or anyone else on board, and have asked for background checks from abroad on all foreign passengers.

But the hunt for the Boeing 777 has been punctuated by several false leads since it disappeared March 8 above the Gulf of Thailand with 239 on board.

Oil slicks that were spotted did not contain jet fuel. A yellow object thought to be from the plane turned out to be a piece of sea trash. Chinese satellite images showed possible plane debris, but nothing was found.

Earlier, the FBI joined forces with Malaysian authorities in analyzing deleted data on a flight simulator belonging to the pilot of the missing plane, while distraught relatives of the passengers unleashed their anger Wednesday, wailing in frustration at 12 days of uncertainty.

The anguish of relatives of the 239 people on Flight 370 boiled over at a briefing near Kuala Lumpur’s airport. Two Chinese women who shouted at Malaysian authorities and unfurled a banner accusing officials of “hiding the truth” were removed from the room. In a heart-wrenching scene, one woman screamed in sorrow as she was dragged away.

“I want you to help me to find my son! I want to see my son!” one of the two unidentified women said. “We have been here for 10 days.”